We do not need to worry about embryos that pass through to improve human intelligence, says leading geneticist George Watson.

Ohne of the world's leading geneticists says it will only be a matter of time until the genes of human embryos are laid out. To improve their health and intelligence – and this is something we need to embrace and not fear.

Georgetown, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, said the current controversy surrounding human embryos was exaggerated and compared it to the short-lived moral panic that preceded the introduction of IVF or "test tube babies" at the end 70's.

In an interview with a feature in the week's Telegraph magazine, which made its name as part of the international team that first began modeling the human genome in 2003, he said he was less concerned about gene editing that is used to improve human intelligence than the few limited technique. He predicted it would eventually be "adopted around the world".

"I just do not think blue eyes [an extra] 15 IQ points are really a health threat, "he says," I do not think this is a threat to our morals. "

In November, a Chinese scientist, he Jiankui, shocked the world by announcing that he used CRISPR-Cas9, a church genetic editing tool that helped pioneer, to disable a gene called CCR5 in the embryos of twin daughters to make them resistant to HIV.

The move was condemned as "monstrous" by scientists around the world because it broke a scientific taboo for many years – using an unproven technique to treat an already treatable disease.

But while others expressed outrage, the church remained unequivocally, says Science magazine, "As long as these children are normal, healthy, it's going to be okay for the field and the family."

In his interview with The telegraph, The church went further, comparing the reaction to the message of Jiankui with the fear surrounding the first use of in vitro fertilization.

"For a while, it looked like in vitro fertilization would be something that was not used, because everyone said" babies in the test tube! "It's really scary," he said. "And then one healthy baby, Louise Brown in 1978, and suddenly it's all right."